Kansas GOP speaker's prayer for President Obama's death

Kansas Republican House Speaker Mike O’Neal stepped onto the national stage when he was forced to apologize to First Lady Michelle Obama after an email he forwarded to fellow lawmakers calling her 'Mrs. YoMama' made national news.

O'Neal's offense giving impulses were not over, however. Another email he forwarded to his fellow House Republicans asked them to to pray Psalm 109, which contains these verses:

'Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.'

But look at the rest of this psalm if you will:

'When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labor. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children.'

O'Neal was calling for prayers for the death of the President, the First Lady and even the President's children. He concluded the message to his fellow Republicans with a personal endorsement: 'At last — I can honestly voice a Biblical prayer for our president! Look it up — it is word for word! Let us all bow our heads and pray. Brothers and Sisters, can I get an AMEN? AMEN!!!!!!'

This is what passes for Christianity these days in many right wing circles. In 2012, the GOP House Speakers were openly praying for the deaths of the first family! O'Neal felt suitably emboldened to forward this message to his fellow House Republicans. Psalm 109 is about wishing for someone's death.

O'Neal was quick to offer a mealy mouthed defense. 'I understand the debate over the verse interpretation about which I have explained and for which I have repeatedly apologized, to the extent anyone misconstrued my intent or was otherwise offended. I respect both the president and the office,' O'Neal told The Wichita Eagle.

But is there much difference between calling for someone's death or asking others to pray for it by proxy? They say the first sign that you've created God in your own image is if you notice He hates all the same people you do.

Given that he holds these lamentable views and then shares them with others, perhaps representing the state's politics isn't the ideal forum for his talents.